12 January 2011

Where is Amtrak when you need it?

I’ve got my annoyance on.

I’m sitting in the near-empty Philadelphia airport nursing a Mountain Dew and a splitting headache. Around me are the familiar grumblings about cancelled flights, lack of information, and airline representatives who act as if they’d rather be in traction.

Of course the reason I’m in Philly is because of my own recent airline customer service fiasco. In short, I needed to drop one leg of a recent flight, and USAirways wanted to charge about $600 for letting me keep the seat I already had on a Charlotte to Chicago flight.

Really?

I’ve flown USAirways since it was Piedmont Airlines not because it was always the cheapest or most convenient airline, but because its customer service was always good and always helpful whether I was a Gold Preferred or no level at all on their miles program. USAirways treated me right, so I flew it whenever I could.

Apparently those days are in the past. According to the 5th customer service rep I spoke with over several days, what they can do or can’t do to help customers has “really tightened up.”

In other words, lower your expectations.

Well, they're lowered.

The conversation also put me in a mood, as my mother would say. So for the next week, I’m holding a contest to solicit opinions on various airlines. I’d like to hear your best horror stories about airline travel. Name names. Share details. Make me laugh. Make me cry. Let me know if the airline made it right.  Then share this link so I can hear even more stories.

The best story will win a $20 Amazon gift certificate from me, and I’ll use all your tales to review airlines and pick the one most likely not to leave me with a splitting headache, which will be the one I'll fly.

Or maybe I'll just take the train.